The plan is to help the firm grow and sell more software to corporate clients and mobile money issuers in Africa.

wiGroup delivers solutions that enable corporates to accept mobile transactions. It helps firms move their loyalty cards to mobile applications. A total in-store mobile transaction value of more than R4bn has been processed securely to date.

“We want to capitalise on its presence and the position it has built in SA. The second aspect is to help the business win more customers and get business outside SA,” Investec’s private equity investment principal William Alexander said.

It is in a partnership as well with Interswitch, an electronic transaction switching and payment processing firm in Nigeria. The Investec Africa Private Equity Fund II has also invested in telecoms towers business IHS Africa in Nigeria and IDM, a debt management company in SA.

China surprised the world on Tuesday by devaluing its currency, in a move likely to boost Chinese exports and support the country’s flagging economic growth. The change to the currency’s value was the most dramatic one-day change in two decades.

The move is likely to stir intense concern, as political leaders, especially in the United States, have long complained that China leaves its currency at a lower value to boost its domestic industries.

Over the past decade, China has let the value of the currency, known as the yuan or renminbi, rise, but the announcement by China’s central bank Tuesday is sure to reignite debate over whether the country is giving an unfair advantage to its businesses.

The Nigeria-UK Capital Markets Project Tuesday launched its inaugural report on the state of the Nigerian capital markets, stressing the need to boost the integrity of the markets, improve information disclosure, reduce potential for manipulation, promote transparency and good governance and generally improve standards and investor confidence.

This came as the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, said that tax incentives could be a major catalyst for greater capital flows into the capital market in Nigeria.

Generally, the report has detailed recommendations for the legal and regulatory environment, and the overarching aim to deepen market capacity and attract domestic and international investment.

However, one of the key recommendations is the establishment of a platform through which market participants can collectively focus on key issues around market development.

The report was unveiled at a short ceremony at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos. It is the first in a series of research papers that will analyse the state of Nigeria’s capital markets and make recommendations for improvement.

The report is the product of several months of collaborative work between the Nigerian Capital Markets Solicitors Association and the Law Society of England and Wales.

Other recommendations by the report include: reducing the cost of capital markets transactions and tightening the regulatory enforcement process, introducing an efficient and reliable dispute resolution mechanism as a central mechanism to secure investor confidence, reforming elements of the tax system for the markets, alongside a broader suite of additional incentives to deepen capital market activity and focusing on market education and capacity within market operators, as well as deepening the knowledge base of the retail investor community.

Fresh evidence of the dramatic impact of the Greek debt crisis on the health of the country’s finances has emerged, with official figures showing tax revenues collapsing.

As talks continued over a proposed €86bn third bailout of the stricken state, the Greek treasury said tax revenues were 8.5% lower in the first six months of 2015 than the same period a year earlier. The bank shutdown that brought much economic activity to a halt began on 28 June.

Public spending fell even more dramatically, by 12.3%, even before the new austerity measures the prime minister Alexis Tsipras has been forced to pass to win the support of his creditors for talks on a new bailout.

Greece is due to make a €3.2bn repayment to the European Central Bank on 20 August.

Talks with the quartet of creditors, which includes the ECB, the International Monetary Fund, the European commission and Europe’s bailout fund, the European stability mechanism, are continuing, and Tsipras has suggested they are “in the final stretch”.

However, it remains unclear whether the prime minister, who was only able to pass the latest package of austerity measures with the help of opposition MPs, will be able to win the backing of his radical Syriza party for new reforms, at a special conference due to be held next month.

The IMF has made clear that it will refuse to commit any new funds until Greecehas signed up to a new economic reform programme, and eurozone countries have made a concrete offer to write off part of the country’s debt burden.

Sweden’s representative on the 24-member IMF board, Thomas Östros, said there was strong support for a new Greek rescue, “but it will take time”.

He also noted that Greece must adopt wide-ranging reforms first. “They have an inefficient public sector, corruption is a relatively big problem and the pension system is more expensive than other countries.”

Despite the grim news on the public finances, Greek stock markets bounced back yesterday, after three straight days of decline, with the main Athens index closing up 3.65%.

In a separate piece of more optimistic news, official figures showed that the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in three years – though it remains at a historic high of 25%.

Transactions at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday remained upbeat with investors net worth appreciating by 0.70 percent.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the All-Share Index rose by 211.03 points or 0.70 percent to close at 30,458.86 against 30,247.83 posted on Monday.

Similarly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N10.367 trillion, appreciated by N72 billion or 0.70 percent to close at N10.439 trillion.

Forte Oil led the gainers’ table, growing by N4 to close at N194 per share.

Unilever came second with a gain of N1.80 to close at N37.81, while PZ Industries appreciated by N1.45 to close at N29 per share.

GTBank garnered N1.39 to close at N24.45 and Guinness Nigeria increased by 98k to close at N131 per share. On the other hand, Mobil topped the losers’ chart, dropping by N5.97 to close at N150.01 per share.

Total trailed with a loss of N5 to close at N155, while Conoil fell by N3.98 kobo to close at N36.87 kobo. Lafarge Africa lost N1.85 to close at N101.24 and Flour Mills declined by 95k to close at N29.48 per share.

The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) plunged 22.86 per cent this morning, after it resumed trading for the first time in five weeks.

The country’s banks – Piraeus Bank, National Bank, Alpha Bank, and Eurobank – were the biggest losers, each suffering heavy losses of around 30 per cent. Banks make up about 20 per cent of the Greek index.

The exchange had been shut down on June 26, ahead of the government’s imposed capital controls to stop the possibility of capital flight from the country.

Market mavens had been expecting the sell-off with, Takis Zamanis, chief trader at Beta Securities, yesterday saying “the possibility of seeing even a single share rise in tomorrow’s session is almost zero”.

It comes as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras agreed to begin negotiations on a new €86bn (£61bn) bailout deal.

Talks on the deal will continue tomorrow, with a view to wrapping up an agreement before 20 August, when €3.2bn is due to be paid to the European Central Bank.

Dangote Cement Plc, Africa’s biggest producer of the building material, said first-half profit rose 28 percent as the benefits of expansion helped make up for “uncertainties” in its home market of Nigeria.

Net income was 121.8 billion naira ($614 million) in the six months through June, compared with 95.4 billion naira in the same period a year earlier, the Lagos-based company said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday. Sales gained 16 percent to 242 billion naira.

The company has 40 million metric tons of installed capacity across three cement plants in Nigeria, an import terminal in Ghana and factories that have recently opened in Ethiopia, Zambia, South Africa, Senegal and Cameroon, it said.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude producer, has been hobbled by a halving of oil prices in the past year and the toll of an Islamic insurgency in the country’s north. The economy is expected to grow 4.8 percent this year, down from 6.3 percent in 2014, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Dangote Group Chairman Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, said in June that the cement unit is investing in 16 countries on the continent to tap demand for building materials as governments invest in infrastructure. The company is spending billions of dollars for expansion across the continent, it said in Thursday’s statement.

Dangote’s cement sales volumes for the first six months of the year rose 14 percent to 8.1 million tons, 22 percent of which were sold outside Nigeria, the company said.

Dangote shares were unchanged at 170.52 naira at 10:18 a.m. in Lagos. The company is valued at 2.9 trillion naira.

First City Monument Bank Limited on Monday listed its N26bn series 1, seven-year 14.25 per cent fixed rate unsecured bond on the FMDQ OTC Plc.

The bond, which is due in the year 2021, is under a N100bn debt issuance programme with FCMB Capital Markets Limited, the investment banking subsidiary of FCMB Group Plc, as the issuing house and sponsor of the bond.

At the listing ceremony, which was held at the head office of FMDQ OTC in Lagos, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, FCMB Limited, Mr. Ladi Balogun, said the move was significant as it would enable the bank to boost its capital and support its customers in the current challenging times.

“FMDQ have been excellent in showing true initiatives transforming the Nigerian Bond market to an international standard. We look forward to future developments from them.” Said Mr Gbite Oduneye, CEO of A&O Acquisitions

He said, “The significance of listing the FCMB bond on the FMDQ platform is hinged on the availability of a readily accessible liquid market to the bondholders, where the value of their investments can easily be determined and monitored on a daily basis. It also provides a platform to realise their investment when necessary.”

He added that the proceeds of the bond would be used in strengthening its capital base, enhancing its capital adequacy ratio, expanding its distribution channels and infrastructure as well as growing its risk assets with a view to enhancing income.

Already, the signing cer­emony of their proposed initial offer for subscription has been held by the fund managers to herald their de­but. Recall that Vetiva listed the first equity ETF, the Vet­iva Griffin 30 ETF, which tracks the performance of the NSE 30 Index on the Exchange, in March 2014.

“Vetiva are leading the way in the ETF Market, their innovation will further deepen Market liquidity and bring in more Portfolio Investment to the Exchange” said Mr Gbite Oduneye, CEO of A&O Acquisitions

The statement from the company read in part:

“Following the receipt of the Securities and Ex­change Commission clear­ance of the offer documents in respect of the proposed initial offer for subscription of three Exchange Traded Funds i.e. the Vetiva Bank­ing Exchange Traded Fund (VB ETF), the Vetiva Con­sumer Goods Exchange Traded Fund (VCG ETF) and the Vetiva Industrials Exchange Traded Fund (VI ETF), Vetiva Fund Manag­ers Limited is pleased to an­nounce the successful host­ing of the signing ceremony in respect of the proposed Initial Offer.

Whenever you are in a room with European officials and discuss the euro, there is usually somebody who raises his finger and says: “This is all well and good, but it is ‘against the rules’.” It then gets very quiet.

“Against the rules” is a big thing in Europe. Most people do not really know what the rules are. But they do know that rules have to be followed.

The situation reminds me of a short story by Franz Kafka, Before the Law, where a man tries to seek entrance to a courthouse. A door keeper tells him that this is possible in principle, but not at the moment.

The man spends his entire life in front of the court waiting to be admitted. At the end of his life he was told that he could have gone through the door at any time. That man followed the wrong set of rules — rules of the mind, not of the law.

Rules of the mind is what we are dealing with in the European debate about the single currency. Many of these rules either do not exist, or they constitute some rather far-fetched interpretation of existing rules.

The police ministry said investigators had found “evidence to suspect that individual trading companies are illegally manipulating securities and futures exchanges”. It said in a statement that a criminal investigation was under way but gave no details of which firms were being looked into.

The move appears to be aimed at deflecting blame away from the ruling Communist party for the trillions of dollars lost by investors after China’s market benchmark plummeted 30% since peaking in mid-June.

Drastic official efforts over the past two weeks, including a ban on sales by executives and big shareholders, appear to have at least temporarily halted the decline that wiped out $3.8tn (£2.45tn) in investor wealth.

On Monday, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed up 2.4%, its third daily rise in succession, although it remained 23% below the peak of 12 June.

Britain has been put on alert to expect its first interest rate rise since the global financial crash at around the turn of the year as the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, warned that the long period of 0.5% borrowing costs was coming to an end.

Carney told businesses and consumers that Threadneedle Street would have to respond to the economy’s stronger growth by announcing the first tightening of policy since rates were increased to 5.75% in July 2007 – the month before the US subprime mortgage crisis erupted.

However, the governor added that after an extended period of what were expected to be emergency rates, borrowing costs were likely to peak at just over 2% – half their average historic norm since the Bank was founded in 1694.

“It would not seem unreasonable to me to expect that once normalisation begins, interest rate increases would proceed slowly and rise to a level in the medium term that is perhaps about half as high as historic averages. In my view, the decision as to when to start such a process of adjustment will likely come into sharper relief around the turn of this year.”

The Nigerian Stock Exchange has indicated that a decision over going public will soon be finalised, ushering in the investment it seeks to overhaul the country’s financial markets infrastructure and attract foreign investors.

The user-owned NSE is looking to break decades of influence from local banks and brokers by demutualising. Such a move would allow it to accept investments from outside parties and embark on a possible listing as it presses on with plans to build a clearing house and start trading listed derivatives.

“Our footprint is Africa — [the overhaul] is a catalyst for developing African markets,” Oscar Onyema, chief executive, told the Financial Times in an interview. “We’re looking at making sure investors have open access to markets, and make it easier for foreign investors to access the market.”

The exchange also has ambitions to attract more of its economy and population of 18m to its venue, a move that may put it into competition with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for listings, an area where the NSE has struggled in recent years.

It would take a heart of stone not to feel for the Greek people over recent events. For all that their casual approach to taxpaying and their taste for generous government spending have contributed to their country’s economic woes, the agreement their government has now struck with its creditors amounts to nothing less than national humiliation. The country that quarried the foundation stones of Western civilisation is now humbled, forced to impose more austerity measures and allow billions of euros of state assets into an internationally-controlled trust because its creditors do not trust its politicians to keep their promises. All this only days after the Greek people clearly voted against austerity as a condition for international bailouts.

Greece’s finance minister has announced his resignation after Greek voters decisively and “bravely” rejected a tough new bailout deal. Yanis Varoufakis said he had been “made aware” some members of the eurozone did not want him at the meetings of finance ministers.

He quit as the leaders of France and Germany prepared to hold emergency talks, adding: “I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride.” GREECE-EU-REFERENDUM-DEBT Varoufakis: “Aware” he was not welcome by some eurozone members Thousands of people waving flags and chanting “no, no, no” celebrated through the night in the centre of Athens as just over 61% snubbed demands for further austerity measures. Creditors had wanted more spending cuts in exchange for extending the country’s multibillion euro bailout deal until November. 1/23 People stand in front of a giant screen with referendum results at the Zappion conference center in Athens “No” supporters celebrate on a street in central in Athens Gallery:

Greece Referendum: Supporters Of The ‘No’ Campaign Celebrate Greece referendum “No” supporters celebrate referendum results on a street in central in Athens Greece referendum People stand in front of a giant screen with referendum results at the Zappion conference center in Athens “No” supporters celebrate on a street in central in Athens Gallery:

Greece has closed its banks and imposed capital controls to prevent financial chaos after the breakdown of bailout talks with its international creditors.

The move, which left many depositors scrambling for cash, came at the end of a weekend which saw Greece lurch closer to a potential exit from the European single currency, confronting the eurozone with a rupture unprecedented since its launch in 1999.

The escalation in the Greek debt crisis triggered a sharp reaction on financial markets on Monday. The euro was down by almost 1 per cent and European stock markets experienced heavy opening losses.

Greece’s financial stability council, grouping the banks, regulators and government, decided to impose the controls on Sunday night after the European Central Bank said it would freeze the amount of emergency loans it supplied to keep the Greek banking system afloat.

Shanghai Composite Index heading for its biggest loss in eight years after falling nearly 8pc in one day

Chinese stocks tumbled, with the Shanghai Composite Index heading for its biggest loss in eight years, amid mounting concern that the nation’s longest-ever bull market has peaked.

Friday’s rout was paced by technology shares and smaller companies, the leaders of China’s world-beating rally through mid-June. About 66 stocks fell for each one that rose on the Shanghai Composite, which sank 7.9pc to a seven-week low of 4,170.18 at 2:29 p.m.

China’s $8.8 trillion stock market has plunged from first to worst on global performance rankings as leveraged speculators unwind their positions and a growing number of analysts warn that valuations have climbed too far. Morgan Stanley advised clients to refrain from purchasing mainland shares in a report on Friday, saying the Shanghai Composite’s June 12 high likely marked the top of the bull market.

“This is probably not a dip to buy,” wrote Jonathan Garner, the head of Asia and emerging-market strategy at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong. “In fact, we think the balance of probabilities is that the top for the cycle on Shanghai, Shenzhen and the ChiNext has now taken place.”

The Nigerian Stock Exchange has indicated that a decision over going public will soon be finalised, ushering in the investment it seeks to overhaul the country’s financial markets infrastructure and attract foreign investors.

The user-owned NSE is looking to break decades of influence from local banks and brokers by demutualising. Such a move would allow it to accept investments from outside parties and embark on a possible listing as it presses on with plans to build a clearing house and start trading listed derivatives.

“Our footprint is Africa — [the overhaul] is a catalyst for developing African markets,” Oscar Onyema, chief executive, told the Financial Times in an interview. “We’re looking at making sure investors have open access to markets, and make it easier for foreign investors to access the market.”
The exchange also has ambitions to attract more of its economy and population of 180m to its venue, a move that may put it into competition with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for listings, an area where the NSE has struggled in recent years.

“It would be awesome if we had a naira-dollar contract that we could trade on the exchange…Futures and options are asset classes that we think would be very beneficial to foreign investors.” – CEO of the Nigerian Stock Exchange Oscar Onyema told Bloomberg News.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange CEO has stated to Bloomberg that the African exchange is looking to start trading naira futures sometime in the near future. The rationale being is that it will help investors hedge against movements in the local currency. Moreover, it is also a way to diversify the exchange offering into FX as Nigeria’s markets continue to develop as one of the strongest and most capable on the African continent. As of now the exchange trades in Equities, Bonds, and ETFs.

The bourse might offer futures by the end of 2017, Onyema told Bloomberg. Also according to the article reported by Maria Levitov from Bloomberg, traders and bankers alike have called for a loosening of capital controls enforced by central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele to protect the naira.

Finally, the endgame. After weeks of posturing, Greece is running out of time to escape bankruptcy and a forced exit from the European single currency. By Friday, as both sides scrambled to fix up a fresh round of talks for this weekend after the International Monetary Fund’s negotiators flew home in frustration, it appeared that European officials had been discussing how they might manage a Greek default.

It’s hard not to be mesmerised by the day-to-day drama of walkouts, public posturing and political intrigue, which may finally reach its conclusion in the coming days.

But as Greece hurtles towards the brink, it’s worth asking how we got here. The euro was always meant to be a political project above all – lifting Europe’s stragglers up to the living standards of the rest and, in doing so,k cementing the political ties between Athens and Antwerp, Madrid and Munich. Joining the club was a badge of political sophistication, as well as economic advancement; and clubbing together, it was thought, would help the European economy to act as a counterweight to the might of the dollar and the hegemony of US-style market capitalism.

It’s a measure of how far the eurozone has departed from that founding mythology that the IMF, the fountainhead of economic neoliberalism, has sometimes found itself having to act as a moderating force as the bailout talks have dragged on in recent weeks.

Aliko Dangote lives as you might expect, given he’s the richest person in Africa and resides in the same country being bullied by the insidious Boko Haram terrorist group, which finds something noble in kidnapping village girls. Located on Victoria Island, a wealthy Lagos enclave that has a moat in the form of a lagoon and the far eastern shores of the Atlantic Ocean, his mansion comes with all the trimmings: massive black gate, bulletproof windows, Big Brother video surveillance, guards and a secret entryway.

After I enter, a butler motions to a sitting room overlooking a patio and a blue-tiled pool. The three-story fortress is shielded from the 90-degree heat by powerful air-conditioners (themselves presumably shielded from Nigeria’s notoriously unreliable electric grid by diesel generators). Dangote, round-faced with a trimmed graying moustache, appears from upstairs dressed in khakis and a casual blue button-down. The 58-year-old can seem miscast in the role of industrial titan, often speaking so softly that he mumbles.

As breakfast arrives by the platterful, including plantains, smoked chicken in red sauce, diced sweet potatoes, whitefish and sausage, he sticks to coy conversation. Whether about his country’s fraught presidential election (“It’s going to be tough for both parties”) or his cement company’s long-delayed overseas listing (“Maybe next year”), he has little to say. On one subject, though, he is always articulate. “Nigeria is one of the best kept secrets,” Dangote says. “A lot of foreigners are not investing because they’re waiting for the right time. There is no right time.”

Nigeria does provide fertile opportunity for vast wealth. As evidence, look no further than Dangote’s No. 67 rank on the World’s Billionaires List and his $14.7 billion fortune – mostly from three majority stakes in publicly traded cement, sugar and four companies. And he doesn’t arrive here alone. In another dramatic sign of his country’s emergence, Nigeria has overtaken South Africa on FORBES’ 50 Richest in Africa ranking. Thirteen Nigerians earned spots in 2014, including a trio of new billionaires.